This invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a computer program. More specifically, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a computer program wherein contents are defined as groups and production of a database for management of the contents and setting of a contents reproduction list can be performed based on the defined groups.
Recently, data recording media having a large capacity such as a flash memory and a small-size hard disk have been popularized. Such a data recording medium having a large capacity as just mentioned prevails to be incorporated in information processing apparatus such as personal computers (PC) and contents reproduction apparatus such as portable devices.
Such a data recording medium having a large capacity as mentioned above can store a great number of pieces of music contents, and a great amount of such contents data is managed typically based on a directory configuration set in advance. As general contents management configurations, a management configuration having a layered configuration and a management configuration wherein contents are classified into various categories are available. For example, in order to improve the facility in search of object data (contents) or the facility in arrangement by a user, various management configurations have been proposed.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2003-22656 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1) discloses a data management configuration having a layered configuration. In particular, only data which belong to the same category are recorded and managed in the same layer to achieve efficient data search. Meanwhile, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2002-288017 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 2) discloses a configuration which enhances the facility in search of a contents file by a user. To this end, the Patent Document 2 discloses a file management configuration having a layered configuration wherein a marking of a file belonging to a predetermined holder and a marking of a file belonging to a subfolder of the folder are displayed with the same form as that in a case wherein the files are kept in the same folder.
Although various configurations have been proposed for a contents management configuration of a database and are directed to improvement in facility in search of contents stored in a database, they do not necessarily have a directory configuration conforming to the preference of a user.
Further, when contents are successively acquired from a database to perform continuous reproduction of a plurality of pieces of contents, it is necessary to produce a contents reproduction list (play list) in which a contents reproduction order is set. The contents reproduction list (play list) can be produced by a process by a user of arbitrarily selecting contents and combining the selected contents into a list or a like process.
However, production of a reproduction list involves complicated processes such as a process of selecting contents from among a large number of pieces of contents and a process of sequentially setting the selected contents. Particularly, in order to set a large number of pieces of contents to a preproduction list, it is necessary to perform a search process for a large number of pieces of contents one by one for each piece of contents. Therefore, there is a problem that, as the number of pieces of contents to be set to a reproduction list increases, the difficulty in construction of a reproduction list increases.